I see it took 3 hours to clear Zucotti Park, complete with a string of garbage trucks into which personals and the “Occupy Library” was dumped. That visual symbolism is an absolutely perfect statement of the regard in which public protest is held by the powerful. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
The OM (The “Occupy Movement”) interests me on a number of levels, primarily as it is a baby step towards something larger and inevitable, and because of the societal and cultural implications.
OM is becoming a tiresome threat to what actually matters to the 1% and the millions whose survival depends upon their table scraps: we are getting close to the most important part of the year for consumerism. I recall that during the WTO protests here in Seattle, local news stations aired soundbites of annoyed, fashionably dressed white women whining that their freedom to shop was being inconvenienced. No surprise here – for much of the downtown Seattle area, you need to be in the top 5% (at least) to afford to shop, so those abstract, far away “hippie issues” don’t have very much traction when compared to the Macy’s sale.
I noticed that Frank Miller posted a particularly caustic diatribe on this topic (Yahoo News thought this was newsworthy!), regurgitating the bigoted smear promoted by those invested in the status quo. Other than Frank’s friends, why should anyone care what Frank Miller thinks? He’s not, let’s say, educated in Political Science – he makes his living drawing pictures based on tired old narratives that have already been done to death by much better artists (such as Homer). What interests me is that his post, and the attention it generated, reminds me that the Internet legitimizes the worldwide broadcast of comments and ideas that are best suited to sharing with your friends in your trailer park over a case of beers and blunts. In other words, offhand, poorly reasoned, unsourced comments do not deserve the artificial importance now provided by the illusion of mass appeal (Wow! I have 17,389 “friends!”). But it dovetails with the primal human need for validation and acceptance, and the human susceptibility to anecdotal evidence. Sadly, Pogo was right.
I also think it is interesting to note that Zuccotti Park is owned by Brookfield Office Properties, which means the “occupation” was, technically, a form of trespassing as the rules of public space and public use do not apply. The real significance of this observation is to realize that increasing amounts of what we assume to be “public space” is not actually public space any more. This is a direct result of “conservative” pressure to privatize all governmental functions, and the incessant media flood of right wing propaganda about taxation, which is drying up the revenue needed to support and maintain public facilities.
The “commons” is being dismantled right out from under everyone, and by the time the full extent of the damage is realized by enough people, it will be too late.
This leads me to thoughts about media bias, political corruption and neoconservatism.
These will wait for another day.